What Is The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was intricately designed to provide not only a more efficient health care system but also as a protection for private patient information and data. With the widespread use of technology and computers in hospitals, the availability of patient information, their health portfolio, and their previous care has significantly improved the efficiency of health care. However, this also means that there is greater leeway for that information to be lost and/or shared without patients consent.
Maintaining complete compliance with HIPAA policies and sub-policies is hard, but with a training course for all employees, this is a possible reality. If a HIPAA violation does occur, the consequences range from minimal to serious, possibly involving money as fines or even going to prison. A HIPAA training course will educate employers and their respective employees about how to prevent such violations from ever occurring. If you don’t think that it can apply in your workplace you may need to reconsider. Below are some very common HIPAA violations that can put your workplace into peril.
Oral privacy is one of the provisions stated by HIPAA that can be a very hard thing to accomplish, especially in cases of overly friendly receptionists and any ignorant staff who have access to patient information. When someone is not educated in this matter they may think nothing of mentioning a patient’s name or gossiping about a patient if front of other people. If someone simply talks to someone else about patient information that is not directly related to their jobs, then they are in violation of HIPAA regulations and could be susceptible to fines, jail time, or even revocation of medical licenses. However, in most cases if it occurs accidentally, then the fine ranges from $100-$1000 per violation.
Medical reports are recorded every time you visit the hospital .It includes of your health history, laboratory test results and your everyday lifestyles.All of this reports are private,thus as an employee you are subjected to medical privacy to your employer .Also in a workplace an employee is not supposed to undergo any kind of a medical exam before he/she is offered a job.in some cases you can find out that taking the medical test is one of the requirements.this comes in hand if the test is related to the job offer.
The provisions of HIPAA are specific and still they are easy to violate, but with an education course all healthcare personnel can prevent such violations from occurring in the workplace. Knowledge of HIPAA and making changes in the workplace will not only benefit all of the employees involved but also make for a healthier, more efficient health care system.
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